Electrical machines having a permanently excited rotor and a winding for the stator, in particular what are generally known as brushless direct-current motors, can be controlled by a microcontroller, for example. In response to switching off of the electrical machine, the rotor thereof can reach any position at all. Even here, there is generally no preferential position.
Since an initial commutation must always be performed when the electrical machine is switched on, the situation can, therefore, arise whereby the rotor at first briefly moves in the wrong direction when the exact position of the rotor is not known, so that it is also not known which commutation is to be performed.
As a result, fuel can initially be delivered in the wrong direction, particularly when such an electrical machine is used in fuel-delivery systems, such as in a motor vehicle.